VietNamNet Bridge – The education technology program has been existing for 35 years, sometimes in the open air, sometimes in the darkness. The pilot period of the program has just finished when the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) admitted its preeminence and decided to apply the technology in a large scale throughout the country.

The rise and fall of the education technology

The education technology is the research work at the national level by Professor Ho Ngoc Dai. The program was put into application in 1978 at the Hanoi Experiment Secondary School under the supervision of the Education Science Institute.

In 1990, the education technology entered the new stage of being applied in a large scale. By 2000, the program had been applied in 43 provinces and cities.

However, the program was ordered to stop in 2001, when the ministry decided that the schools nationwide follow the same curriculums and the same textbooks.

However, the program did not fall into oblivion. In 2008, Lao Cai province in the north and Tay Ninh, Kon Tum, Kien Giang, Dak Lak and An Giang in the south decided to apply the program again.

In 2010-2011, MOET allowed local schools to apply another curriculum on teaching Vietnamese for first graders at the same time with the official curriculum, provided the local education departments inform to the ministry about the application.

To date, the education technology has been utilized in 37 provinces and cities nationwide for 200,000 first graders.

Professor Ho Ngoc Dai said he feels happy when seeing the education technology returning to schools.

“Though the education technology has existed for 30 years already, MOET still keeps cautious when getting it back for schools,” Dai said. This was the reason why in the first three years after the returning, the education technology was just the pilot program.

However, the pilot program has finished, because it has been put into application in a large scale across the country.

The advanced technology will exist

Nguyen An Ninh, Director of the Lao Cai Education and Training Department, said it was a “daring action” to apply the education technology at the time, ignoring the instruction by the education ministry.

At first, the education technology was applied in four districts of Muong Khuong, Simacai, Bao Yen and Bao Thang. The technology then brought surprising achievements: it made the teaching of Vietnamese language to the ethnic minority students easier than ever.

Trieu Thi Hoa Dao, Headmaster of the Trinh Tuong Primary School No. 1 in Bat Xat district, said that once ethnic people can have good Vietnamese language skills, they can easily receive scientific knowledge.

Kien Giang now applies the education technology at 62 primary schools, while Nam Dinh at 100 percent of its primary schools. In Hai Duong province, the technology has been utilized in a large scale in two districts, and at some other schools in other districts.

When asked why MOET decided to bring the education technology back to schools, Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien said it is the outstanding features of the program which has prompted the ministry to do this.

Nguyen Hien